GM Watch
  • Main Menu
    • Home
    • News
      • Newsletter subscription
      • Daily Digest
      • News Reviews
      • News Languages
    • Articles
      • GM Myth Makers
      • GM Reports
      • GM Quotes
      • GM Myths
      • Non-GM successes
      • GM Firms
        • Monsanto: a history
        • Monsanto: resources
        • Bayer: a history
        • Bayer: resources
    • Videos
      • Latest Videos
      • Must see videos
      • Cornell videos
      • Agriculture videos
      • Labeling videos
      • Animals videos
      • Corporations videos
      • Corporate takeover videos
      • Contamination videos
      • Latin America videos
      • India videos
      • Asia videos
      • Food safety videos
      • Songs videos
      • Protests videos
      • Biofuel myths videos
      • Index of GM crops and foods
      • Index of speakers
      • Health Effects
    • Contact
    • About
    • Links
    • Donations
    • How donations will help us
News and comment on genetically modified foods and their associated pesticides    
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Newsletter subscription
    • News Reviews
    • News Languages
      • Notícias em Português
      • Nieuws in het Nederlands
      • Nachrichten in Deutsch
    • Archive
      • 2021 articles
      • 2020 articles
      • 2019 articles
      • 2018 articles
      • 2017 articles
      • 2016 articles
      • 2015 articles
      • 2014 articles
      • 2013 articles
      • 2012 articles
      • 2011 articles
      • 2010 articles
      • 2009 articles
      • 2008 articles
      • 2007 articles
      • 2006 articles
      • 2005 articles
      • 2004 articles
      • 2003 articles
      • 2002 articles
      • 2001 articles
      • 2000 articles
  • Articles
    • GM Myth Makers
    • GM Reports
    • How donations will help us
    • GM Quotes
    • GM Myths
    • Non-GM successes
    • GM Firms
      • Monsanto: a history
      • Monsanto: resources
      • Bayer: a history
      • Bayer: resources
  • Videos
    • Index of speakers
    • Glyphosate Videos
    • Latest Videos
    • Must see videos
    • Health Effects
    • Cornell videos
    • Agriculture videos
    • Labeling videos
    • Animals videos
    • Corporations videos
    • Corporate takeover videos
    • Contamination videos
    • Latin America videos
    • India videos
    • Asia videos
    • Food safety videos
    • Songs videos
    • Protests videos
    • Biofuel myths videos
    • Index of GM crops and foods
  • Contact
  • About
  • Links
  • Donations
  • 2021
  • 2021a
SUBSCRIBE TO REVIEWS

GMWatch Facebook cornfield banner

SCIENCE SUPPORTS REGULATION OF GENE EDITING

Plant tissue cultures

GENE EDITING: UNEXPECTED OUTCOMES AND RISKS

Damaged DNA on fire

GENE-EDITED CROPS & FOODS

Help stop the new threat

News Menu

  • Latest News
  • News Reviews
  • Archive
  • Languages

Please support GMWatch

Donations

You can donate via Paypal or credit/debit card.

Some of you have opted to give a regular donation. This is greatly appreciated as it helps place us on a more stable financial basis. Thank you for your support!

2010 articles

EFSA conflicts of interest

  • Print
  • Email
Details
Published: 01 December 2010
Created: 01 December 2010
Last Updated: 22 October 2012
Twitter
NOTE: The report referred to:
European Food Safety Authority: A playing field for the biotech industry - Standards for risk assessment massively influenced by industry: http://www.testbiotech.org/en/node/431
---
---
Testbiotech reveals conflicts of interest at the European Food Safety Authority EFSA
1 December 2010
http://www.testbiotech.org/en/node/429

*Call for independent risk research

Munich - A report presented today by Testbiotech in a media conference in Munich, reveals severe conflicts of interest at the European Food Safety Authority EFSA. The chair of EFSA´s expert GMO Panel responsible for risk the assessment of genetically engineered plants, has been working for years with a so-called Task Force group at the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI). A member of staff from Monsanto heads the Task Force, and all its members are from biotech corporations. ILSI itself states that its Task Force group influenced EFSA standards for the risk assessment of genetically engineered plants. There is evidence in several documents that ILSI did indeed influence the work of EFSA. For example, the authority does not request feeding trials using genetically engineered plants to investigate potential health impacts. The document used to justify this doubtful position is partially plagiarized from an ILSI paper.

"This Testbiotech report can only describe the tip of the iceberg. There is reason for concern that the risk assessment of genetically engineered plants is influenced by the relationship between the GMO panel experts and biotech industry in way that renders it impossible for EFSA to fulfil its task as required,” says Christoph Then from Testbiotech.

Two research projects supported by Testbiotech were presented at the media conference in Munich. They show just how important it is that risk research remains independent of industry. In climate chambers, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland investigated the reactions of genetically engineered maize to extreme environmental conditions such as heat and drought. Due to ongoing climate change, these conditions are becoming more and more relevant. Genetically engineered maize expressing insecticidal toxin is used in the experiments. “These kind of investigations are decisive for risk assessment. We need to know much more about how changing environmental conditions impact the activity of the technically introduced gene constructs,” says the project leader Angelika Hilbeck from the University in Zuerich.

A further research project is finalized and awaiting scientific publication. The methods for measuring the content of the insecticidal protein in genetically engineered plants were compared in a joint test involving several laboratories. Currently, the methods used for this purpose can render widely differing results. The current investigations were conducted with participation of András Székács from from the Hungarian Academy of Science and propose a standardized method for the comparable measurement of the toxin concentration in Bt plants.

Besides Testbiotech, the Altner-Combecher Foundation as well as the GEKKO Foundation, the Manfred-Hermsen Foundation, the Foundation on Future Farming and the Society for Ecological Research (Munich)support the projects that were presented.
Contact:

For informations please get in contact with
Christoph Then, +49 151 54 63 80 40, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Testbiotech e.V.
Institute for Independent Impact Assessment in Biotechnology
www.testbiotech.org
  • Prev
  • Next

Menu

Home

News

News Archive

News Reviews

Videos

Articles

GM Myth Makers

GM Reports

GM Myths

GM Quotes

How Donations Will Help Us

Contacts

Contact Us

About

Facebook

Twitter

RSS

Content 1999 - 2021 GMWatch.
Web Development By SCS Web Design